The graph illustrates how often and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal southern hemisphere spring. The biggest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue suggests the strength, with the strongest winds shown by deep blue. It is based on 7252 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2006, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Otago Peninsula - Allans Beach, located 21 km away (13 miles). There are insufficient recording stations world wide to use actual wind data. Invevitably some coastal places have very localized wind effects that would not be predicted by NWW3.

According to the model, the prevailing wind at Otago Peninsula - Allans Beach blows from the S. If the rose plot shows a nearly round shape, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Otago Peninsula - Allans Beach. On the other hand, dominant spokes represent favoured directions, and the more dark blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. During a typical southern hemisphere spring, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (pale blue) about 7% of the time (6 days each southern hemisphere spring) and blows offshore 30% of the time (27 days in an average southern hemisphere spring). Over an average southern hemisphere spring winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 11 days at Otago Peninsula - Allans Beach

IMPORTANT: Beta version feature! Swell heights are open water values from NWW3. There is no attempt to model near-shore effects. Coastal wave heights will generally be less, especially if the break does not have unobstructed exposure to the open ocean.